Trans-Pacific View | Society | East Asia

2 Olympic Gold Medalists Show the Mixed Results of China’s Efforts to Bring Back Diaspora Talent

China’s push to attract ethnic Chinese talent from the U.S., in particular, is up against hard limits – but anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States may work to Beijing’s advantage.

Alysa Liu of the United States performs during the women’s figure skating short program during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.

“So many athletes compete for a different country. People only have a problem with me doing it because… they just hate China.” That was Olympic skier Eileen Gu’s response to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s comment that she should be competing for the United States. 

Gu, though born in the U.S., decided to represent China’s national team before the 2022 Olympics. From a broader perspective, her story brings into focus China’s efforts to entice those with Chinese heritage to work for the “motherland” – not only elite athletes but scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs. 

A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that the Beijing municipal government paid Gu and fellow U.S.-born athlete Beverly Zhu $6.6 million in 2025. But that figure only represents a small proportion of Gu’s annual income of $23 million, much of which comes from corporate sponsorship deals that bank on her celebrity status in China.

Gu is just one high-profile example of the formula the Chinese government originally developed for those with advanced STEM backgrounds. The Thousand Talents Plan, which ran for a decade until 2018, and its successor, the Qiming, aimed to lure top scholars to China with lavish government grants, alongside institutional support for their work at universities and research institutes. 

And like Gu, many of the so-called “returnees” have since leveraged their star power to earn more than just government funding by founding and working for top Chinese technology firms. As many on social media said about Gu, these ethnic Chinese individuals would succeed in the United States, but not make nearly as much money as they are making in China.

Yet even as both government and private-sector funding bring more top athletes and technology performers back to China, political push factors keep many others away. 

Days after Gu’s retort to Vance, another Chinese American – figure skater Alysa Liu – took home a gold medal – but for the United States. Her American status is secure. Her father is........

© The Diplomat